161 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



there were mussels, a large number of the common barnacle and 

 balanus, but none of the Lepas anatifera (the object of ancient fable). 

 But the animals most aboimdiug were ascidians, singular creatures, 

 interesting to microscopists on account of the contents of the stomachs. 

 Besides these were actiniaB, tubicolar worms, the larvae of cephalopods, 

 vnih various zoophytes, but few algae. He had some of them now 

 under the instrument, and hoped to find in them material for a future 

 paper. He afterwards described the structure of some new and curious 

 fungi, and the characters by which it was proposed to classify them, 

 and he exhibited specimens under a powerful monocular microscope. 

 He also communicated some notes on the rye-grass fungus, on which 

 Mr. Ralph and himself had reported at a previous meeting, both 

 agreeing in the view that it was deficient of some of the characters 

 required to constitute it a clavaria. He intimated that its place had 

 now been settled by Mr. Bentham and Baron Von Mueller among the 

 Isariae, with the name of Isarice rjraminiperdcB. 



The Chainnan remarked that the subject was a very interesting 

 one, 



Mr. Sydney Gibbons nest exhibited a section of the tooth of a rare 

 animal, the orycteropus, a burrowing animal of the anteater family, 

 whose dentition difiered from that of all other known animals. The 

 creature is devoid of canines and incisors, but has a double set of 

 molars, one of which it sheds every year. To add to this anomaly, 

 the structure of the teeth is unique, being composed of a cluster of 

 pentagonal j^risms, instead of the usual enamel with a bony foun- 

 dation. 



The meeting afterwards spent some time in examining the several 

 specimens brought by members. 



